The Blood Nosehound darted at Lyden like a red cannonball. In its maddening eyes, all it could see Lyden. When the Blood Nosehound ran up close enough to its target, it pounced on him with its sharp black claws.

But before it could land on him, Lyden swiftly side-stepped to its side to avoid its frontal attack. However, the large monster instinctively used its tail to turn in midair. The tail pounded on the ground beneath it and forced its body to spin just enough for its bulky arm to smash against Lyden.

Lyden was caught off guard and got hit square on the chest. He was flung across the room like a rock skipping on the water until the wall stopped him. The clothes on his chest were burning when it touched the Blood Nosehound fur.

Its fur was capable of burning pretty much anything it touched.

Blood Nosehound was not a merciful monster. Seeing that Lyden was down on the ground, it propelled itself towards him so he could not have a chance to get by up. This Blood Nosehound had riched battle experience and was using all it got to take out its prey.

Usually, it would look for weaker prey, but since it was hungry, and there was nothing else around to eat. Lyden was the only choice for the Blood Nosehound.

With its gorilla-like body, it smashed down its red arms at Lyden hoping to crush him. Rocks flew everywhere when it smashed the rocky ground. The room vibrated, and more cracks were forming from all over.

Rather than seeing a dead body, it missed and hit nothing. Lyden dodged it so fast that the Blood Nosehound could not follow it with its eyes.

The Blood Nosehound instinctively sniffed the room to find him with its long nose.

Without looking, the Blood Nosehound stabbed its tail to its left. From there, it hit Lyden.

It was not able to pierce him, but it attacked with enough force that Lyden was flung once again and landed on the floor once again.

'How did it find me?' Lyden baited it to get closer when he was flung across the room just moments ago. When it got close enough, Lyden quickly stepped to its blind spot. He was hoping to strike its head to end it without damaging the room. But he did not expect it to counterattack him.

'Is It because of my shirt?' He recalled that Ku Sang said that the Blood Nosehound was sensitive to change in temperature. Lyden thought the fur was just for burning its prey and had not paid attention to it since it was ineffective against him.

The Blood Nosehound did not move towards Lyden this time. It was wary as it failed twice to kill Lyden. Even though it was angry, the Blood Nosehound was not like an animal on earth who relied solely on instinct. Monsters had enough intelligence to adapt to their situation.

Unlike animals on earth, monsters' life was never peaceful. They were in constant war with their own kind, all looking for a way to survive. Thus, many evolved to rely less on their instinct, but instead their emotions and intuition. Although they could not think logically and complex thoughts like humans, they were not far from it regarding their needs for survival.

The Blood Nosehound calmed its anger and quickly decided on its next move.

Seeing how Lyden was able to survive its attack from its tail, it knew that it had no chance of winning. The Blood Nosehound would now disregard him as food.

Instead of giving up its life for a food that could kill him, it decided to run away. With its steel-like claws, the Blood Nosehound was digging a hole to escape.

The crack in the room was getting larger and larger that more rocks were falling on top of them.

Lyden knew it had to stop it before the Blood Nosehound dug deeper. He decided that holding back was no longer an option.

As the cracks slithered like snakes all over the room, Lyden dashed towards the hole the Blood Nosehound. It was shallow enough that Lyden was able to see it still digging. He jumped inside the tunnel and fist in the air.

If the Blood Nosehound had already eaten and did not tire itself out from fighting Lyden, it would have dug much faster. But unfortunately, it could not escape now.

Lyden's fist smashed directly on its skull to the ground. The Blood Nosehound did not have time to react and died without retaliating.

However, before Lyden could rejoice, the ground collapsed, and he fell through the room.

It collapsed due to the room structure. When it was formed, dozens of small tubes were established throughout the room. This caused it to have a weak structure. So overtime during the fight, the small tubes collapsed on itself until more and more did, thus, forming crack all over the room.

Eventually, the walls and floor could not hold itself anymore.

The ground opened up and created a gaping hole big enough where Lyden and the corpse Blood Nosehound to plunge through.

When Lyden fell into it, it what seemed to be an endless over. As he sank deeper, the surrounded area got even hotter like he was swimming in lava. Even Lyden was beginning to sweat from the intense heat. His body could not block out all that heat.

After dropping several meters deep, he plummeted to a lower level with a loud explosion and kicked out everywhere.

Lyden created a crater on the rocky ground as if a small meteor had landed on it. Thankfully, his body was sturdy enough to withstand the impact. But he did not come out completely unscathed. He coughed up blood due because his inside was injured.

Slowly the dust in the air dissipated and revealed Lyden was lying on top of a pool of Blood Nosehound's blood. Its body was in bits and pieces from falling from such height.

"Shit, how far did I fell in?" Lyden looked above him and did not see the hole where he fell from. It was clogged by rocks and was sealed off.

"This place is so hot, and I cannot stay here long..." He was sweating immensely that his sweat was evaporating the second it touched the air. If it weren't for his cloned body, he would be a small pile of ashes by now.

Lyden went up the craters to see his surroundings clearer.

"What the--"

From the edge of the crater, he saw something unbelievable. Sea of Blood Nosehounds propped their heads to look in the direction where the newly formed crater was at.

Some of the Blood Nosehounds were small, some were large as the one Lyden fought, and few of them were larger than the rest.

Like a war drum signaling an enemy approaching, they all roared towards the intruder, Lyden. They can smell the blood on Lyden's body, which made them more furious.

"This is the nest of the Blood Nosehound!"

With a thundering stampede, a tidal wave of Blood Nosehounds all galloped to kill Lyden from all direction.